Life
of Pi based on Yann Martel novel which won the man Booker prize for fiction in
2001 is a compelling tale of hope & survival. The film starts off where the
adult Piscine Molitor Patel (Irfan Khan) narrates his story to the writer (
Rafe Spall). Piscine Molitor Patel named after a swimming pool in France lives
with his family in puducherry. His father owns a zoo, the initial encounter
with the bengal tiger Richard Parker is fascinating telling us deeply about the
understanding of animal psychology.
Piscine
Molitor Patel changes his name as Pi because people in his school call him as
pissing patel. Pi is raised as a Hindu but he is also introduced to Islam &
Christianity, the initial 30 minutes of the film meanders slowly where Pi tries
to understand the different religious philosophies & also experiences his
first love. Pi‘s father is forced to sell his zoo and he carries the animals to
be sold in Canada, the ship in which they travel sinks in pacific ocean leaving
only Pi, injured zebra, hyena, orangutan & the ferocious bengal tiger
Richard Parker. Pi is forced to survive with the tiger which kills all the
other animals.
The
next 227 days of survival, hope, passion, courage, grit with Richard Parker in
a life boat is told in a gripping manner with amazing & spectacular 3 D
visuals. Debutant Suraj Sharma as the younger Pi is brilliant; the bengal tiger
Richard Parker a mix of computer graphics and real tiger and you are not quite
sure whether the tiger is a real one or computer generated. 3 D is a technology
& it is only as good as the script, life of Pi is an example of how a good
story gets translated into an extra ordinary film through 3D with stunning
& fabulous visuals.
The
climax is open ended where the insurance officers find Pi story a hard one to
believe & they ask him to narrate what exactly happened. Pi narrates
another story of sharing the lifeboat with his mother, a sailor with a broken
leg, and the ship's cook. In this story, the cook kills the sailor to use him
as bait and food. Pi's mother pushes him to safety on a smaller raft & the
cook stabs her as she falls overboard to the sharks. Later, Pi returns to grab
the knife and kills the cook.
The
writer Rafe Spall) analyses the similarities between the two stories: the
orangutan was Pi's mother, the zebra was the sailor, the hyena was the cook,
and Richard Parker, the tiger. Pi (Irfan Khan) asks him which story the writer
prefers; he chooses the story with the tiger, to which Pi responds, "And
so it is with God". Irfan Khan as the older Pi is terrific, Tabu as Pi’s
mother with a minimum screen time underplays her role with wonderful subtlety
& Adil Hussain as Pi’s father has also done a commendable job.
Life
of Pi is a visual feast which also strikes an emotional chord with the viewer.
Hope, desperation, courage, joy, happiness & enlightenment has never been
portrayed like this before in 3D. Ang Lee take a bow; it's a bravura piece of
filmmaking. It’s a must watch for people who love sheer visual poetry on
screen.
Running Time: 127 Minutes
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